Ballast container for aircraft



K.,STAHL.

BALLAST. CONTAINER FOR AIRCRAFT.

I APPLICATION'FHED JEJNE 2 8, 1920. I r 1,418,491; P entedJune 6, 1922...

I INV-LNTOR]:

' of one or more parts, of lowcost of manu- KARL STAHL, or FRlJEDRICIl-ISI-IAFEN,

GERMANY, ASSIGNQR TO THE FIRM: LUFT- SCHIFF'BAU ZEPPELIN GESELLSCI-IAFT MIT BESCHRANKTER HAFTUNG, 0F

FRIEDRICHSHAFEN, GERMANY.

BALLAST CONTAINER FOR AIRCRAFT.

Application filed .Tune 28,

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, KARL STAHL, German citizen, residing at Friedrichshafen, Germany, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Ballast Containers for Aircraft (for which I have filed an appli& cation in Germany, June 3, 1918), of which the following is' a specification.

My invention relates to containers for liquid and fine-grained solid substances adapted to be quickly emptied. .It refers more particularly to the construction and the provision of an emptying device in connection with the containers used for holding the ballast required for airships.

Ballast containers in the shape of barrels,

bags, etc., are already employed for aircraft. However, barrels, even when empty, take up much room, while the containers consisting of a woven fabric, or the like, so far known, possess no emptying device which may be considered as absolutely re liable.

Besides, owing to their height being limited, it is always necessary to set up or suspend these containers at certain definite places, in themselves not infrequently very unfavourably located. I

It is an object of this invention to produce a ballast-containing device composed facture, great strength, extremely light weight, and provided moreover witha reliably operating emptying arrangement, and which lastly may not only be suspended at any point of the airship but may also be operated from any part of the vessel desired.

The subject matter of this invention accordingly has reference to a ballast container,in particular for the liquid ballast of air'ships, adapted to be quickly emptied, and

in which a sack or bag-shaped container terminates at the bottom in a leg-shaped outlet. Subject to this invention, this outlet portion may be turned up, and when the 7 container is filled itwill reach to about the upper edge of the container. On this tucked up end being then let down, the entire contents of the container will amost immediately be discharged.

Now since the length of the outlet member, connected to the bottom portion of the container proper, whichin width is essen- Specification of letters Iatent,

substantially allow a person to pass through conveniently.

Patented June 6, 1922. 1920. Serial in. 392,602.

- tially narrower than the said container when just three quarters the size of a man, then there will be left space enough between the To prevent any ballast from being flung about the airship by theoutlet member'as it 1s being let down forthe purpose'of emptying the ballast, there is provided-and this is an additional feature of my inventionat'the bottom of the container proper, besides the aforesaid outlet, an additional guide member enveloping the outlet and having likewise the shape of a, leg. The lower end of this guide member is suitably fixed to a funnel-shaped rigid outlet connection having a resilient joint flap, the outer end of which terminates in aline with the outer skin of the airship. To obviate the necessitynof storing up in one single container too large quantities of ballast, which would have to be emptied at one operation, use is preferably. made of an'arrangement consisting of a plurality of parts, in the case .of which a ballast receptacle, subdivided by one or more partitions into a plurality of chambers, is provided at-the bottom of each of said chambers with an. outlet member adaptedto: be either'tucked up or drawn up,

To simplify the arrangement, there is only provided a single guide member, serving as the common guide for all the outlets, and which branches'ofi' from the container at or shortly beyond the point where the container passes over into the outlets, and which envelops these latter.

Further to prevent the sin 1e outlet members, which as a rule will be et down. insucnarrower outlet portions to cession, but which, if required, may also be let down simultaneously, from interfering with each other, it will prove expedient tocontinue the partitions of the container proper within the guide member so' far downwards that they will at least approximately extend to the outlet connection. On the other hand they are not continued in the upward direction right up to the upper edge of the container, but are provided shortly below said edge with overflow puts, to enable the entire container to be filled from one particular place.

The device for suspending and releasing the outlets which, as said, may be :either turned up or drawn up, may be of any kind desired. Notwithstanding it will be found expedient to provide a releasing bar for se curing the unattached ends of the outlet members, which for their part and to this end are provided with eyes. This releasing bar is then connected on the one hand to a vertically shiftable support having a horizontal linked axis and resting, on the other hand, when the support assumes its lowermost position,'with its unattached end on an immovable support. For in such an event, by merely drawing up the displaceable support or bearing, the releasing bar will with out any doubt be shifted into an incline, and

' will be drawn off from the stationary bearing. This causes the links or e es to glide off from the releasing bar, so t at the outlet ends will drop down.

To afford the possibility of successively emptying ballast containing arrangements comprising a plurality of parts, with the help of but a single tension member, the movable bearing of each releasing bar is connected each to a bent lever; in which case the unsupported shank of each of these levers is disposed within the part of a series of stops fixed at regular intervals to a common tension member, say, a wire, and serving for an entire ballast containing arrangement comprising a plurality of parts.

An embodiment of the subject matter of the invention is shown in a purely diagrammatie manner by way of example in the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figs. 1 and 2 are a longitudinal section and side view, respectively, of a two-part ballast containing arrangement on a large scale,

Fig. 3 a side view of a detail, showing the method of suspending and releasing the out let portions, and F Fig. i a cross section alongline 4-4: in

A ballast containing bag B is tied, and suspended to a tube A, said bag substantally consisting of a bottom 6', two front faces b and two lateral faces 6 The upper ed es of the lateral'faces 6 which are provi ed with a series of eyes I), are in addition fitted out close to their centre with two openings 6 for the accommodation of two releasing devices which will be described hereinafter. The bottom b is also provided with two large openings, which adjoin each other, to

the edges of, which there are connected two' attached end a joint flap 6, attached by 4 means of a hinge 6 and which, when not loaded, iskept closed by the action of a spring 6 A. partition to which at its upper half is water-tightly connected with the side faces I) of the ballast containing bag, and at its lower portion with the guide member D, divides the ballast containing bag, respectively, the guide piece, into two chambers. To enable the bag to be filled from a particular point, the partition is not carried right through to the very top.

The releasing device for each half of the bag is housed in a supporting plate F surrounding in the manner of. a clamp, a tube A, the two halves or sections, of which said plate is composed being provided each with two laps f and F. The laps f are at their lower end connected in the manner of a strap -by a stop 7. Intermediate, the laps f there is arranged to move the forked end 9 of a releasing bar G, which rwith its other end reposes on the stop f On this bar the tucked up end of the outlet members C or C may be strung by aid of the eyes 0, as indicated in dotted linesin Fig. 1. A linked axis h, adapted to shift within the vertical slots 7' of laps f serves to unite the forked end g with a bearing H, linked'at its other end to a bent lever J flexibly lodged intermediate the laps F. The unattached end of the lever J is provided with an opennig i I for the passage of a wire K. This latter embodies a stop K for each section of the ballast containing bag. If, as shown in Fig. 3 one of the stops K comes to strike against the end of the bent lever, and if the wire K be moved in the direction indicated by the arrow 24, then 'the bent lever T will turn counter clockwise, the right hand end 9 of the bar will be raised, and the barG conse- (uently be set at an incline, in order to finally depart from the stop f and perpendicularly drop downwards. At this the eye 0 will glide off from the bar, and the outlet member Cor C, drawn up in front of ,the bag, impelled by its own weight as well as by the pressure of the water or sand contained in it will likewise drop down, so that this entire section of the container will be almost immediately emptied. During this operation the guide piece D prevents, in the one hand, the ballast from being flung or squirted about the deck of the airship; on the other hand, it serves to take up the shocks tively, may be drawn up in frontof the guide member, respectively, the ballast containing bag B proper, they being then strung up by aid of the eyes 0 on the bars G, and these last returned into their locking position. As

v the guide member D would more or less prevent direct contact with thedepending ends 0 of the outlet members, some of theeyes c are interconnected by means of diagonally arrangedcords, not shown in the drawing. By means of a hook,- adapted tobe lowered and raised-by means of a stringinto the ballast containing bag, respectively, into each of the outlet members C or C, the said cords may be caught and drawn up as far as the bars G. As soon as the eyes 0 are I claim:

1. A ballast container comprising in combination, a bag, a hose of large section extending from an opening in the bottom of said bag and means for releasably fastening the free edge of said hose inside said bag and in. the upper part thereof.

2. A balast container comprising in combination, a bag, a hose of large section extending from an. opening in .t-he bottom of saidbag, means for releasably fastening the free edge of said hose inside said bag and in the upper part thereof, an envelope surroundlng said hose and a valve in the lower end of'said envelope.

3. A ballast container comprising in combination, a bag, a plurality-of hoses of large diameter extending from openings in the. 'bottom ofsaid bag,- means for releasably fastening; the free edges of said hoseinside said bag. and in the upper part thereof, an envelope surrounding all said hose 'and.,a

.valve in the lower end of said envelope. strung up on the bars G, and the latter again returned into their final position, the device is again ready to be filled.

In testimony hereof I aflix my signature.

KARL SI-AHL. 

